Note Page 27:Growth of Tobacco and Cotton

IndustryIn North Carolina, Late 1800’s

Birth of the Tobacco Industry

in North Carolina

Prezi Presentation by Sprayberry

Tobacco• Smoking was popular since

colonial times but NC had found a smoother tasting tobacco.

• Union soldiers discovered bright leaf smoking tobacco during Civil War

• wrote back to NC for more

Sharecropping

End of slavery ended plantation living. Large tracts of land were divided up and given to sharecroppers or tenant farmers. Tenant farmers needed a crop that could raise cash quickly. Sharecroppers were told what to grow. Land owners told them to grow tobacco. Tobacco = Money

R.J. Reynolds

• Richard Joshua Reynolds moved from Virginia to Winston in 1875. Came from a prosperous farm family. Grew tobacco for generations.

• Built a tobacco factory near the newly built railroad.

• Wanted to become a major tobacco manufacturer.

• After the Civil War communications, transportation, and technology allowed business to grow larger than before.

Bull Durham Tobacco• William T. Blackwell and Julian

Shakespeare Carr came together and created product known as Bull Durham pipe tobacco. Named after the town.

Washington Duke & Sons (Ben, Buck)

• Made Durham, NC into tobacco center

• Began processing their own tobacco• 1881, decided to make cigarettes

– at the time: slow, difficult process to role by hand• used Jewish immigrants from Europe at

first• Didn’t want to compete against

Bull Durham pipe tobacco!

Duke’s Tobacco Business

• 1884 began using James Bonsack’s machine that rolled cigarettes & improved on it• cut production costs in half• cigarettes rolled by machine became

very popular– bought competitors out – created American Tobacco Company

in 1890• largest tobacco company in world

Impact on NC and World• Industrialized tobacco production

• Created a large market for cigarettes

• Brought immigrants to NC• Brought money to NC, a LOT of $$$

$

Washington Duke’s Homestead and original factory! Sons started the American Tobacco Company…

Duke used his influence to have Trinity College moved to Durham. The institution opened its new campus in

1892 with him and son Benjamin as its principal

benefactors. In 1896, Duke gave the college $100,000 (about $2,200,000 in 2005

dollars) on the condition that it open its doors to women.

Trinity College was renamed in honor of Duke in 1924,

becoming Duke University.

1900

Railroads are built!• NC learned its lessons from the Civil War

and drastically improved its rail lines.

1860

Textile Industry• North Carolina was at an

advantage because of the huge cotton production

• Post-war demand for textiles for clothing and furnishings helped too

• Had families known for their high-quality cloth before the war

Manufacturing: Textiles

• With the invention of the spinning jenny and the power loom, the textile industry took off. Clothes and other cotton products could now be made far faster than ever before.

Impact on NC

• More raw material grown nearby (cotton)• many trained workers able to get jobs

– 1860: 39 mills– 1900: 177 mills provided 30,000 workers

with jobs• Prewar reputations for quality of NC

mills ensured demand for NC cloth– brought in a lot of money each year

Manufacturing: Furniture

• Ernest Snow, John Tate, and Thomas Wrenn– from High Point, NC– created High Point Furniture

Manufacturing Company– advantages: good location with good

rail transportation; raw materials easily available (in the hardwood forests)

Different Parts Work Together!

Mountains supply timber for furniture, Coastal plain the cotton for textiles,

Piedmont has flowing rivers for water power / electricity.

Video Clip

• Still Standing – The Real Story of

the NC Textile Industry

Keys to NC Success• Industry requires 5 main things to be

successful. capital = $ to start the business.1. NC had money from mills after the Civil War.

Mills continued to make money and invested it in new factories.

2. Labor = people to work. Former slaves and sharecroppers often enjoyed the idea of working in a factory as opposed to on a farm.

3. Raw materials = the items before they are sent to the factory. NC has agriculture, lumber, stone all the materials that factories could need.

4. Markets = places to sell the finished product. NC's central location allowed it to sell products to the South as well as the North.

5. Transportation = moving the finished product where it needs to go. Post Civil War NC had many rail lines installed allowing products to shipped easily.

Impact on NC

• Mechanized the creation of furniture• Gave rural NC citizens jobs with steady

wages• Many people needed new furniture

after the Civil War• Created a reputation nationwide for

fine quality furniture…brought in lots of money

• Grew related businesses: varnishes, stains, hinges

• Grew towns and improved conditions in NC

Note Page 27:Growth of Tobacco and Cotton Industry

In North Carolina, Late 1800’s

The End